Best practices in campus technology use: October 2012

Here are some of the best practices in campus technology use featured in the October 2012 issue of eCampus News.

An open textbook project at Rice University saves students $1 million in textbook costs … a new business school program tackles the unemployment problem among recent college graduates … a “crowdfunding” website connects enterprising students with professionals who can help them launch their business: These are among the best practices in campus technology use featured in the October 2012 edition of eCampus News.

Our October issue is now available on our website. You can browse the full publication here, or click on any of the headlines below to read these highlights.

College students in some of the most heavily attended courses in the country will eclipse $1 million in textbook savings, after a Rice University-based publisher announced that it’s had 13,000 open textbooks downloaded since June…

Indiana University’s 900 incoming business school students will have access to a program with web-based components designed to lay out three years of education—a measure intended to help recent graduates avoid joining the lengthy line of peers at the unemployment office…

A push by Ohio State University to enhance traditional classroom material with digital elements will benefit the general public as well. For example, OSU students—or anyone, for that matter—soon will be able to watch short videos on climate change on an iPad and then use an app to manipulate 3D molecules to see why some are greenhouse gases and others are not…

For Vincent Lucero, Upstart came along at the right time. His gaming company, Soaring Squirrels, was just lifting off in the spring, and he was looking for money. A friend directed the recent University of Washington graduate to Upstart, which offers a platform for multiple investors to drop relatively small investments into the accounts of budding entrepreneurs—a phenomenon known as crowdfunding…

When the drone of a massive air compressor chugged to a halt in April at a construction site near the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Jack Hebert said with a smile that it would be the last time any fossil fuel would be used there. Hebert, the president of the Cold Climate Housing Research Center, was joking—but not by much. CCHRC and UAF have joined together to build a new student housing complex with experimental buildings that they believe will function year-round without burning any on-site oil…